


a Million Worlds Apart

by w_illows



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Comfort, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Gay Keith (Voltron), Identity Reveal, Injury, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Lance has anxiety, M/M, Pidge uses she/her pronouns, elements of enders game, ill add tags as i go, its the garrison but in space
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-08-22 22:02:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16606262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/w_illows/pseuds/w_illows
Summary: for the past few years since grade eight lance has attended the garrison, which unlike other schools, is in space. but what really makes the garrison special is its battle program, it’s probably the best one you can go to while still in school.the battle program is something almost everyone at the garrison strives to get into, it can set you up for life and give you the training and skills you need, to become a crucial part on a battle team.but it’s also something that can cost you more than you’re willing to give.—lance and keith are both on the battle team, but they don’t know that.an unlikely bond forms between their alter identity’s, while in person they’re anything but friendly





	1. for you to be here

—

pidge sits across from lance, in her green uniform for the programming unit, hunk next to her in orange for the engineering unit. lance sits across from them in a light purple uniform for the battle unit. the majority of the students enrolled at the garrison have spread themselves out in the large common area of the transit ship. the white tables are almost full with only a few gaps in seats between different friend groups. the quiet but audible hum of the machinery is all around them, a constant reminder of their new surroundings.

lance sighs deeply in an attempt to calm his nerves. it’s like this every year during takeoff. memories of his tearful goodbye to his family once again replay in his head. it hasn’t even been an hour and he already misses them. 

“hey lance you doing okay?” hunk asks, as he begins to reach his arm across the table in hopes to comfort lance.

“yeah just nervous, i’ll be fine” lance replies, while brushing away hunks hand. he releases his grip from the end of his sleeves and stretches them across the table. 

“what’s your schedule this year?” pidge asks.

lance perks up at the mention of classes and waves his hand across the wristband that tightly clasps his left wrist. the small device glows to life, a projection of his schedule hovering in the air above, displaying his schedule for hunk and pidge to see. hunk does the same with his and they place their wrists side by side to compare.

after comparing their classes for no more than a minute hunk wearily smiles, “well, at least we have battle strategies together”, waving his hand over his wrist and closing down the projection.

“yeah it’s better than last year” lance mumbles quietly smiling to himself. because hunk is in more leadership and engineering classes, they don’t see each other that much since lance is in classes aimed towards battle battle classes. pidge on the other hand, never has classes with them. she’s more interested in programming and designing battle strategies, than actually participating in battle.

“well have fun playing soldier all year again lance” pidge says playfully.

“at least i’m not in all the nerd classes” lance teases back, smugly crossing his arms and leaning back into his chair with a creak.

“lance-“ pidge deadpans, “you can't get into this school without being a nerd.”

hunk stifles his laughter with his hand at the surprised sound that comes out of lances mouth.

“hunk!” lance squawks, “you’re supposed to be on my side not the gremlins!” he whines, as the two of them lean in together filling the space with laughter, lance can’t help but smile at his friends.

“sorry man” hunk laughs, “she’s got a point.”

“hey-“ pidge coughs as her laughter dies down, “is that keith?” she asks, gesturing behind lance's head.

lance whips around in his seat as his eyes lock on keith in his purple uniform.

“you’ve got to be kidding me, this guy again!” lance says defeatedly, as he throws his hands up in frustration, turning back to hunk and pidge with a sigh.

“i don’t see why you hate him so much he’s pretty nice once you get to know him” pidge folds her hands and props her elbows on the table, placing her chin on top.

“of course you’d say that, your brother is best friends with keith’s brother!” lance whines, crossing his arms with a pout on his face he sneaks a glance over his shoulder to see that keith still hasn’t moved from his spot in the doorway.

prickles of annoyance run over lances spine. it’s not his fault he doesn’t like keith, if anything it’s keith’s fault. 

“do you still believe in your crazy conspiracy that keith is the reason you didn’t make it into the battle team last year?” hunk sighs, sharing a knowing look with pidge.

“oh don’t give me that” lance grumbles, “if keith hadn’t gone out of his way to beat me in everything and make me look bad i definitely would’ve made the team.”

he can still remember the feeling like someone had kicked him in the chest when he saw he wasn’t accepted, it didn’t help that he was already starting to think he didn’t belong here and then to have that thrown on top really put him down.

lance watched as pidge slowly unclasped her hands and placed them on the table, a playful smile taking its place across her face.

“hey keith!” pidge yelled suddenly. standing up and waving her hands she called his name again, “keith!”

“pidge what the fuck are you doing!” lance yelled, getting up to swat her hands down before keith spotted them.

“too late” she scoffed, laughing as she sat back down.

lance groaned and slumped further into his seat. this was exactly what he didn’t need to happen today.

what he assumed to be keith’s footsteps became louder as he approached their table, stopping a few feet behind lance.

lance glanced behind him just for a second to see if it was keith. his eyes immediately locked with keith’s sending chills down his spine. keith drew his eyes away, folding his arms protectively around his chest.

“um” keith shifted nervously on his feet, “did you need something pidge.”

“nope, just wanted to introduce you to my friends” she replied back, smiling to lance and receiving a scowl in return.

“hey man i’m hunk, nice to meet you” hunk smiled warmly, nodding his head towards keith.

“hi hunk” keith nodded back, unsure of what to say next he looked to pidge who was currently staring at lance as if she was trying to talk to him without using words.

lance begrudgingly sat up in his chair, “i’m lance.” keith opened his mouth to respond but instead closed it and nodded slightly.

pidge tilted her head in annoyance at lance and stared at him. lance rolled his eyes as he adjusted himself in his seat to face keith before talking again.

“we were both in that battle program try out last year, don’t know if you remember me.”

“oh yeah, sorry i don’t remember a lot of people” keith replied. lance was probably just overthinking again but it felt like keith was being cold towards him, but that wouldn’t even make sense since keith said he didn’t know him. lance shrugged it off and tried to ignore keith for the rest of the time.

“did you make the team last year?” pidge asked with some interest.

“no” he replied.

“really? that’s surprising, isn’t commander adam the coach?” hunk questioned, seeming genuinely interested in.

“doesn’t mean i’ll get on the team just because i know him” keith coldly replied, shutting down that conversation.

this surprised lance. for the past year he’d blamed keith as the reason he didn’t get in, and here was keith saying even he didn’t make it on the team. maybe lance misjudged him and let his pride get in the way of accepting that maybe he just doesn’t deserve to be on something like that, that he’s not good enough.

eventually he sat down besides lance as he continued his conversations with hunk and pidge, only ever acknowledging lance was next to him when either hunk or pidge brought him up. weird, lance hadn’t said anything that would give keith reason to act this way towards him. he probably was just annoyed from the questions about the try outs.

the rest of the time lance spent listening but not participating in the conversation, unless it was to make a joke, but even so he barely talked. he had too much on his mind right now.

[attention docking in ten minutes please report back to your stations for landing] 

the overhead speaker clicked off and within seconds people began rushing out of the common area. pidge began to stand and the other followed what she was doing.

“see you later lance, it was nice meeting you keith” hunk waved as he and pidge headed off in a different direction. keith was in the battle unit which mean for lance that he’d have to spend even longer with him. great.

they walked in silence towards their rooms where the seats for landing and take off were. lance fiddled with his sleeve as nervousness pooled in his gut. should he say something? no maybe keith would think he’s being weird for trying to start a conversation.

“hey so uh” lance began nervously. reaching to rub his neck as he started again, “last year after i didn’t make it on the team i kinda blamed you for not getting on, since you beat me in all of the drills and made me look stupid. how dumb of me was that?” lance tried to laugh it off, immediately regretting he said anything.

keith looked at him for a moment before speaking, “what makes you think you would’ve made it on the team in the first place?” and with that he turns the corner and walks away from lance.

lance stands there in shock, the feeling of heat overtaking him as everything crashes down. anger fills his chest, what gives keith the right to go and say something like that to him? pidge always said he wasn’t that bad but this? this isn’t bad?

as his anger subsides he continues to walk to his designated landing room. eventually, his anger replacing itself with anxiety.

what if keith’s right, what if lance doesn’t deserve to be in the battle program. maybe he doesn’t deserve to be here at all. for the rest of the walk back to his seat and the landing, it’s all he can think about.

 

 

—

 

 

lances head swirled with nausea. walking against the cool metal walls of the garrison he slowly made his way to the auditorium. since pidge and hunk weren’t in the same unit they wouldn’t be boarding for a few more minutes. 

he stands in the doorway of the auditorium for a few moments to steady himself. after doing this so many times you’d think he would’ve gotten over the motion sickness. he runs his hands through his hair and heavily breathes out before walking into the large room.

the ceiling is decently high with glass panels that give a haunting view of the stars. swarms of colour gather at the glass panels throughout the room that display the cabins and who’s in them. lance begins to walk to the closet panel before he spots keith’s mullet.

“great, just who i needed to see” he grumbles to himself. shoving his hands into his pockets he turns the other way and heads to a different panel. squeezing his way to the front he looks for his name, and finds it under cabin 11. he spots hunks name too along with keith’s. his happiness from seeing hunks name now replaced with annoyance.

lance tries not to think about all the things that could go wrong from having to share a cabin with keith. for the most part lance has never had any problems with the students at the garrison, they’re all there for the same reason he is. but keith is already getting under his skin and it’s only been a hour at most since he talked to him for the first time. it stays at the back of his thoughts, making itself known with the feeling of dread it gives lance. it makes him worry about what might happen if he gets involved with keith. he decides it’d be best if he kept his distance from keith so that they don’t bother each other anymore.

he sighs quietly. the words keith spoke still ringing in his head, implying that he wasn’t good enough. lance knows this, he knows there are others that deserve to be here more than him, it’s not his fault he passed the entrance exam and was chosen. 

“stop it” he mumbles under his breath. he’s dealt with this for more than a few years to know the warning signs of him falling down the rabbit hole. there’s no need for him to worry about keith. lance is here, he deserves to be here and that’s all that matters.

a small buzz breaks him out of his thoughts. lifting his wrist he sees the message that was sent to him hovering in the air.

report to the main office immediately 

great. like his day couldn’t get any worse.

 

 

—

 

 

lance sits in the small waiting room inside the main office. a woman with her hair pulled back into a slick bun sits behind the desk in the middle of the room. she told one he arrived to wait for a few minutes before he’s to meet with one of the commanders.

his knee bounces with apprehension. thoughts tumble through his head, going through every possible scenario of what this might be for.

it’s only another two minutes before the woman tells him to enter the room on his right.

lance stands up and walks over to the room, pausing before placing his hand on the door and watching it slide open with ease. 

inside a man with tan skin, much like his own, is waiting behind the desk. he has short brown hair along with black glasses.

commander adam, is printed along his name plate that sits upon the glass tabletop. lance walks in sheepishly, sitting down very quickly in the chair sitting opposite from the tabletop. moments pass and the man says nothing. 

lance shifts nervously in his seat. deciding it’s better to say something than nothing at all, “you asked to see me sir.”

the man's eyes flick down towards lance with such intensity lance already feels like he’s in trouble. he takes his eyes off a moment later as he reaches into a drawer and pull out a file, placing it out in front of lance.

“lance mcclain, my name is commander adam. head of the battle program.” his voice much opposite to how lance initially perceived him, sounds happy almost?

lances heart seems to pick up speed as he feels his pulse begin to race. head of the battle program repeats itself in his head. another moment of silence passes before he speaks again. 

“why do you want to be in the battle program?” the commander asks with such simplicity lance can’t help but think it’s a trick question.

“i’ve always wanted to help people, and protect them. i thought if i could make it into the battle program and pass through it i’d be able to use my skills for others, sir” lance's voice shakes with each word. maybe he wasn’t supposed to say that, what if that’s not what he’s looking for? keith is right why did i ever think i’d get in. his head drops as he continues to think of everything that. could go wrong.

adam mulls over lances words.

“well lance” adam says, bringing lances attention back to him. with a small smile on his face he continues, “welcome to the battle program.” 

“what?” lances head feels like it might explode. 

“we’d like to offer you a spot on this year's team, that is if you accept-“

“yes!” lance interrupts. his hands shoot up to cover his mouth before he says anything else. “sorry, i’d like to accept the offer.” lance can’t hide the smile that’s taken over him, his cheeks flush with emotions he thought he’d never get to experience.

“as of now you’ll have your afternoon classes cut at two o’clock. your wristband will tell you where to go for each practice so don’t worry about trying to find it. once you arrive you’ll need to change into your uniform. everyone has their own change room as to preserve your identity, your uniform and helmet will be waiting for you in there. once the light in your room turns green then you may come out into the battle sphere and await further instruction.” adam clasps his hands together, his face becoming much more serious than before, “do you understand.”

“yes sir i do” lance nods, trying to calm himself down so he can remember what he’s been told.

“you must also understand that this is a very serious opportunity. as you know the battle program is the most highly sought out program at this school, and because of that many students will go to dangerous lengths if it means getting a spot on the team, which is why you must keep your identity a secret on the team. no one is allowed to know who you are, or that you are in the battle program as this can put you in serious danger.” adam pauses for a moment, his eyes drilling into lances. “if someone is to find out your identity, or that you are on the team you may be asked to leave. do you understand these terms?”

“yes, i understand.”

 

—

 

 

lances heart is still beating wildly as he approaches his cabin. it feels like a dream. something he’s wasted since he was accepted to the garrison, is finally happening. warmth fills his chest as he continues towards his cabin door.

having picked up his luggage on the way back from the office he knows he probably won’t be getting first pick of the beds.

lance is right. almost all the beds are taken except for the two top bunks at the end of the room, luckily for lance, hunk is next to them.

lance make his way down the aisle, stopping at the second last bed. he pulls himself up onto the top bunk, sighing heavily as he places his luggage down beside him.

“hey hunk” lance smiles happily. hunk turns to him, his face lighting up when he sees its lance who took the bed next to him.

“lance! where were you i thought we might not get to bunk near each other” hunks voice is full of curiosity, his eyes remaining on lance as he awaits his response.

“i got called to the office, nothing big just needed to check over my schedule” lance shrugs as if it really wasn’t a big deal, when in reality it’s taking everything he has not to happy cry and tell hunk what happened.

he goes back to his small suitcase and begins to unpack. he only has a few items as they don’t need that much here, just a few spare uniforms, pajamas, and some lounge clothes. along with his necklace his mother gave him that he’s not allowed to wear but still brings it every year. making small talk with hunk as he goes.

he’s just about done when hunk brings his attention to the door, to be more specific, to keith walking through the doorway.

lance can feel the happiness immediately drain from him. “great i forgot mullet was in this room too.”

“mullet?” hunk repeats.

“yeah, cause of his stupid hair” lance crosses his arms and grumpily watches as keith walks down the aisle. lance now remembering, there’s only one other open bed in the room. his luck couldn’t get any better today.

keith barley paying any attention to lance gets onto the bed next to him. he glances up, only looking at him for no less than a second before moving onto hunk.

“hey keith” hunk exclaims. the smile on his face really doing well to distract keith from the anger radiating off of lance.

keith smiles, very slightly, in a reply to hunk. 

“wow, you and lance were both late, maybe you two should get up earlier for classes so you’re not late for those either” hunk states in an attempt to draw in conversation, but it only sparks lances interest.

what if keith is in the battle program this year too? it would make sense, since lance was called down maybe keith was called down after him.

lance sneaks a glance at keith, hoping for a sign that what hunk said surprised him. but of course, keith and his stupid bland face has no emotion on it.

yeah, like mr. grumpy pants over here would make it onto a team. lance goes back to his now empty bag, jumping off the bed to place it in the locker next to it. he decides then and there he’s not gonna pay anymore attention to keith.

this is his year, the year he finally made it into the battle program, and there’s no way he’s letting anyone take it away from him.


	2. nothings really as it seems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i forgot to mention this last chapter but they’re all in grade 11 and are 16 turning 17.

lance’s eyes slowly open to to the fuzzy world around him, and for a few seconds he forgets where he is and what he’s doing. it’s nice. 

until the familiar pang of realization hits him and snaps him out of it.

he grips the soft sheets as he looks for the clock, 6:53. they’re supposed to be up at 7am, which is less than ten minutes away. lance grumbles quietly to himself as he pulls the sheets off himself and slips out of the bed, landing on the metallic floor with a soft thud.

it’s the same routine every year, and lance hates it. waking up way too early, sitting in a class all day, being so stressed out even when you don’t have any work to do you somehow convince yourself there’s still reasons to be stressed. at least there’s a light at the end of the tunnel this year, the battle program. lance feels his heart skip a beat as he recalls his meeting with the commander, it still doesn’t feel real.

as he approaches the dressing room at the back of the cabin he feels a wave of, heat? lance turns around to see if anyone else is awake and notices keith’s empty bed. “figures” he mumbles.

his shoulder collides with another as he turns the corner, causing him to stumble backwards.

“hey! watch where you’re going mullet.”

keith's eyes flicker down to lances, his face scrunched up in confusion at the new nickname, “don’t blindly turn corners next time.” he shifts the towel covering his head and continues to walk away. 

lance stands there for a moment before letting out a deep sigh as he drags himself into the dressing room. it’s been one night and he already hates being roommates with keith.

managing it for a whole year seems impossible.

 

 

—

 

 

lance had chemistry first block. you’d expect them to be doing advanced classes since they’re in space and all, but nope, just regular chemistry 20. this was the one thing he wished was different about the garrison.

walking to chemistry took about five minutes, seven if you took the long way which lance liked to do from time to time, mostly just because it had windows that showed earth. whenever lance was stressed out or missing home he’d always walk by the windows, he felt like it made him closer to home.

he spotted his classroom at the end of the white hallway and increased his pace to a light jog. he wasn’t surprised at the fact that no one else was in the room yet, it was the first day of classes everyone’s probably too tired to care about being early or talking in the common room. occasionally lance would meet with pidge and hunk before their first class in the common room as well, but most of the time either one of them was working on a project and didn't have time to spare.

lance walked up the aisles of desks and chose one in the middle of the room. unlike a normal classroom the garrison designed it so every row was more elevated than the one below it, fixing the problem of having someone too tall in front of you. their desks were very similar to the wrist bands they wore as well, when not in use they appeared as a glass table top but once you signed in it came to life in front of you, keeping all the information from your classes stored in your student login so you didn’t need to have any extra notebooks. 

he sat in the chair closest to the wall and lazily typed in his login, his side of the table glowing a pale blue in preparation for class. lance wasn’t a top student, but he wasn’t a bad student either, sometimes certain subjects were just more difficult for him to understand. after yesterday he’d made the conscious decision to try and get higher grades since he’s in the battle program now and wouldn’t have as much time to himself anymore like the past years. 

footsteps interrupted his thoughts, he looked up to see a girl wearing the same coloured uniform as him walking up the aisle. lance fumbled in his seat as he sat up straight in his chair once he realized she was walking towards him.

“hey, are you saving this spot for anyone?” she asks, adjusting her grip on her bag.

“oh no it’s fine go ahead!” lance gestures to the spot beside him as the girl smiles sheepishly and sits down. “i’m lance” he exaggerates, leaning back into his chair, “but you might know me as the man of your dreams.”

the girls lips turn up in a smile as she folds her hands on her lap, turning to face with with a playful grin. “i’m romelle, i also like girls.”

lance feels his brain stop for a moment before his cheeks fill with heat. “oh my god i am so sorry!” he scrambles forward in his chair with his hands flying all over his face, “i like girls too-wait no that’s not what i meant to say-i like girls and guys”. he finishes his rambling with his hands over his mouth to stop himself from talking as he waits for her reply.

“relax it’s alright” romelle laughs, bringing a hand to rest on lances shoulder, “you’re not the first guy to start with something like that, plus you’re like the first person i’ve met here who includes their sexuality in their first conversation.” 

“oh yeah i’m pretty open with it, i also enjoy cheesy pickup lines as well.”

“i can see that.”

romelle and lance stare at each other for a moment before breaking into a laughing fit. as lance laughs he feels the pent up anxiety from moments ago disappear, he hadn’t planned to introduce himself like that but it was nice to know that there was someone who went through a similar situation as him.

until their class started lance and romelle continued their introductions about themselves. romelle was in the battle unit as well but was also taking courses in leadership and programming, maybe she’d have pidge or hunk in some of her classes. she was enrolled in the battle unit because her parents wanted her in it, but she was more interested in leading and planning than actually being involved in war. she mentioned to lance how he had seemed familiar to her before they both realized they were in the same cabin. lance felt himself grow happy at the thought of having another friend in there with him.

the door slid open once again, lance wouldn’t have paid any attention to it if it weren’t for the black mullet the boy walking through had. lance internally groaned as he watched keith walk up the aisle to the seat below him, great. anger prickled throughout his chest, he’d already decided he wanted nothing to do with keith yet keith kept showing up in front of lance leaving him more annoyed than the last time.

stupid keith, with his stupid hair. 

lance felt the memories of hurt replay itself as if he was back in the moment where keith basically said he wasn’t good enough for the battle program. no one ever thought he was good enough, pidge and hunk never even bothered to act disappointed when year after year lance was rejected from the battle program. it felt like he was the only one who believed in himself, but even that was slowly fading, until yesterday. even though he didn’t know why he was accepted, it didn’t matter. he’d finally made it and even though he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone it didn’t stop him from being proud of himself. 

he’d have to really prove it to himself that he deserves it, more importantly prove keith wrong, that he was good enough.

“lance” romelle waved her hand in front of his face, “you okay? you zoned out for a few seconds.”

lance turned to her and plastered a smile upon his face, “yeah i’m good! just thinking about all the homework we’re gonna have.”

romelle stared at him for a moment, her blue almost purple eyes staring into his. lance worried she’d see through his lie but her intense stare was replaced with a gentle smile. he felt the knot in his stomach slowly unravel itself.

 

 

—

 

 

the morning passed by fairly quickly. you know that excitement you get on the first day of school that maybe it’ll actually be a good year? yeah, lances excitement dissolved after his first block.

he joined pidge and hunk in the cafeteria after their morning classes, luckily they managed to find an empty table to sit at.

“you don’t understand he was being so annoying” lance dropped his head against the back of his seat, “i mean who corrects someone when they’re in the middle of talking!” he brought his hands up to his face, dragging them down his cheeks with a heavy sigh.

pidge dropped her spoon and clasped her hands, “lance. maybe he was just trying to help?”

lance scoffed loudly, “yeah, embarrassing me in front of the whole class sure helped my self confidence.” 

pidge sighed, nudging her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose. 

“you guys are supposed to be my friends don’t just sigh at me.”

“maybe you and keith got off on the wrong foot” hunk raised his fork and pointed it towards lance, “why don’t you call a restart.”

“a restart?” lance repeated, raising his brow.

“yeah, just ask keith if you guys can start again since you both seem to hate one another.”

lance slid down the back of his chair until his chin was just floating above the table. “hunk, my buddy, my main man, that is probably the worst piece of advice you’ve ever given me.”

pidge and hunk shared a bored look with one another.

“whatever, you guys aren’t listening to me anyway” lance picked himself back up, planting his elbows on the table and dropping his chin onto his hands. 

“oh no, we’re listening” pidge replies, her lips settling into an amused smile. “I just think you’re over exaggerating, like usual.”

lance doesn’t even bother answering them. so what if they don’t believe that keith is an absolute jerk, he thinks to himself, that doesn’t mean he has to try and be friends with him like hunk suggested. 

he sits in contemplative silence, thinking about whatever comes to mind, but mostly keith, until his wristband begins to vibrate. his eyes shoot down to his wrist as it displays a message telling him he needs to go to a certain part of the ship. excitement bubbles up in his chest.

“I'll see you guys later, I need to go.”

he doesn’t bother waiting for them to reply before he’s up on his feet running to the nearest door, his heart pounding with every step.

 

 

—

 

 

maybe running halfway across the ship wasn’t such a good idea. His chest burns with every breath

he takes a moment to catch his breath as he walks down the empty corridor, everything is unfamiliar. he walks until he gets to a sleek black door which looks way too fancy to be a classroom. a scanner is placed on the wall beside the door, lance lifts his wrist and a white light shoots out from it and onto his wrist.  
he gasps lightly when the doors slide open, revealing a small room. he hesitates, taking a few steps in before the doors shut with a loud snap.

ok, he thinks, now i can freak out. 

the room itself is quite small but it's enough for lance to be able to move around comfortably. in one of the corners a locker stands tall with no locks or anything. lance takes a step towards it and opens the door.

inside a black uniform hangs, along with some sort of gun and a helmet that covers your entire head. lance runs his fingertips across the smooth material, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

after a few minutes of struggling, lance stands in front of the mirror in his new uniform, he can practically feel the pride flowing out of himself. the suit is jet black, a honeycomb pattern runs all over it, and extra protection is added on the arms, chest, and legs. 

he looks down to his gloved hands which hold the helmet, his face reflected back at him on the black material. lance lifts it over his head in one swift motion with a loud click as it locks into place. everything is black until the helmets seems to turn on and lift the darkness around him. 

he stares at himself in the mirror, the suit tight around his lanky frame. as he looks to where his face should be all he sees is the reflection of his helmet and its black screen. lance laughs to himself in amusement, they were really strict about this whole privacy thing so much so that they made the helmets black from the outside but a clear view from the inside. 

on the left side of his chest there was a rectangular patch with nothing on it, and the same patch on his right shoulder as well. 

a sudden buzz from the screen on the wall in front of him made him jump. lance approached the screen and read the words hovering in the air, “please enter a code name.” as if it knew he’d finished reading a keyboard appeared below the words.

lance thought to himself for a moment. obviously he couldn’t choose anything that would give away his identity or hint at who he actually was, so he went with something simple.

after typing in his chosen name the screen dissolved into the air and the words appeared on the patches lying on his chest and arm. lance ran his fingertips across the lettering and smiled, he’d always liked the colour blue.

 

 

—

 

 

lance sat in the small room for what felt like ages before the doors slide open, revealing the battle sphere.

the battle sphere was basically a giant glass ball in the center of the ship. it had its own simulated zero gravity that could be activated by a device only the commander had access to. for instances, like now, when gravity was still active there was a metal platform and railing that ran around the inside of the sphere and extended into the middle, like a circle with a cross in it. lance knew from watching old battles that during an active game it disappeared somewhere, presumably back into the walls.

lance takes a step forward and immediately feels nauseated from seeing stars all around him, it felt as if one wrong move and he’d fall through the glass and into the depths of space, he didn’t particularly like that thought.

after collecting himself he continues to walk forwards until he’s at the edge of the railing. his hands wrap tightly around the metal as he peers down towards the bottom of the sphere.

darkness. that’s what he sees, he leans back with shivers running up his spine and takes a few steps back.

only now he notices the other people in the sphere, he counts about ten other people besides himself. it feels weird to be in a room with so many people, but not know what any of them look like.

everyone is in the same uniform as him, but they all have different names on the patches. lance can't help but shiver at the unwelcome feeling of discomfort that crawls over his arms and up his back, suddenly the idea of being in a room full of unknown people isn’t as comfortable as he thought it would be.

he wraps his arms around himself and takes a few more steps back until he’s up against the door.

the hiss of air escaping from the other side of the sphere sends fear running through his veins, he can't help but sigh in relief as he realizes it was just a door sliding open, but he can't bask in his relief for long.

“attention cadets!” commander adams voice is filled with confidence, “i'll let it slide since it's your first day, but next time i expect you all to be waiting appropriately.”

the sphere falls silent. the clicking of the commanders shoes echo through the large space, he stops once he reaches the center of the cross and stands with his arms folded behind his back. 

“let me start off by saying congratulations” a small smile tugs at the corners of his lips, “i know many of you are here for the first time while for others this may be your second or third time being here, but don't think that gives you an advantage.” 

lance didn't know if it was possible to feel more nervous than he did right now. he snuck a glance to his left and assumed from the others body language that he wasn’t the only one feeling this way. 

“you were all chosen for a reason, don't waste your time and your teammates time by thinking otherwise. many factors came into play while deciding who was going to be on this years team, even if you bombed the try out that doesn’t mean you’re not worthy of being here, it means you have the ability to become even stronger.”

lance stands in shock at his words. it feels like it’s as if the commander is talking directly to him. he can feel the flicker of hope blooming in his chest as he repeats the words back to himself.

“now-” adam continues, his voice louder than before, “you all know the rules. don’t reveal your identity to anyone, even the people on this team, you all have code names for a reason. as for practices and official matches, you will have practices every second day and a official match at the end of each month against one of the other teams in this school. in an attempt to further protect your identity the matches won't be shown live but recorded and posted to the schools website. does anyone have any questions. before we get started?”

lance watches to see if anyone is actually brave enough to raise their hand. he has to stop the strangled noise that comes from his throat when someone steps forward.

“sir i-uh” the voice stutters with their head hanging low, “do we get to choose a team name?”

“i’m glad you asked cadet” commander adam smiles fully as his eyes drag across the people standing before him, “your first activity as a team is to agree upon a team name, you have ten minutes to decide.” and with that he turns on his heel and walks back out using the door he came through.

the tension surrounding them is so thick you could cut through it with a knife. moments pass and still no one has said a word, so lance takes it upon himself to start the conversation.

“alright, so we should probably get started or who knows what type of name they’ll assign us” lance says with a smile, before remembering that no one can see his face.

mumbles of agreement fill the silence and the other students all begin to walk towards lances direction. he has to admit that it's a bit unsettling to not see people's faces and just a reflection of his own suit.

“so” one of the others begin, “what should we pick.”

it’s as if someone flicked a switch and the group before him erupts with sound. names are being thrown out every second with arguing added into the mix. lance feels his eyes go wide as he stares at them in abrupt silence, not knowing what to do until a stronger but more calm voice cuts through the commotion. 

“why don’t we pick something simple” the person who the voice belongs to steps forward, cutting through the crowd.

“like what?” someone else asks, the obvious tone of sarcasm etched into their words.

“voltron” they say confidentially.

one by one the other students agree.

lance walks up to the person who suggested the name, their head turning towards him as he gets closer.

“that was pretty cool of you to do” lance states.

“really? thanks, i just wanted them to stop arguing.”

“i’m-“ lance has to bite his tongue, mentally kicking himself, “blue, that was close, almost outed myself in the first half a hour.” 

“i’m red.”

lance laughs, “that’s funny, we both chose colours as names.”

“i guess” they reply with a shrug. “am i allowed to ask what you gender is? so i know what pronouns to refer to you with.”

“oh yeah that's probably cool” lance nods, “i’m a guy.”

“me too” red replies, wrapping his arms around his chest.

lance continues to nod. not knowing what to do he decides to take in the appearance of the boy in front of him. 

the boy stands tall, even though he’s leaning on one of his legs he still manages to surpass lance in height by a few inches. but their builds are fairly similar.

“well-“ lance decides to break the silence, “i look forward to working with you red.”

 

 

—

 

 

is it possible to shatter all your muscles in the span of three hours? because lance was convinced that could be the only reason for the pain he’s in.

since it was their first class they didn’t actually use the sphere, but instead they went to a designated training room and worked on their strength. it was a big wake up call to lance who realized that he really wasn’t as strong as he thought he was.

but that didn't change the fact that his body was going to collapse if he didn’t lay down soon. he dropped his head back in annoyance as he realized he’d have to shower first before he could take a break. it was almost five o’clock so hopefully everyone would be eating dinner and not lounging around the cabin.

lance was right. the cabin was empty except for the sound of a shower coming from the dressing rooms.

really?, he thought to himself, who would willingly take a shower at this time.

lance stops at his bunk to grab his toiletries bag and a change of clothes before heading back to the showers.

the mirror that stretches across the long line of sinks is fogged up with steam. the shower that was running before has stopped, lance increases his pace as he walks into the open stall in hopes of avoiding whoever else was in here.

he rushes his routine and is out in less than five minutes, all he wants is to lay down on his bed and let his muscles rest. even changing into his casual clothes felt like he was ripping his arms with every move.

he draped the towel across his head and opened his stall, almost slipping when he recognized the boy standing at the end of the sinks.

“keith” he states, choosing to ignore the startled noise that keith makes.

“lance” keith replies back, sparing lance a glance before going back to whatever he was doing.

they stand in silence for the next few minutes, not awkward silence, just silence. lance tries to push keith out of his thoughts while he washes his face, buts it's hard to do that when he can feel keith’s eyes on him the entire time.

“do you need something?” lance sighs, gripping the edge of the sink as he looks to keith. 

keith shakes his head, “you have a lot of face products.”

lance rolls his eyes, “yeah. i don't like when my face feels gross.”

keith doesn’t say anything back which surprises lance, if he were keith he would’ve jumped at the opportunity to get a rise out of him. 

keith eventually leaves, not bothering to say anything as he walks past lance.

whatever, it’s not like he cares or something.

lance looks at the clock once he finishes with his skin, it’s almost half past five.

he decides that he’ll take a short nap and the head to one of the study lounges later to catch up with pidge and hunk. 

his bed feels like the most comfortable thing in the world as he sinks into his sheets, he can already feel himself drifting off.

and he definitely doesn’t think of red or keith as he falls asleep, why would he do that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long wait. it was really hard for me to write this since i kept telling myself everything i was writing wasn’t good enough. but i think i’ll be able to stick to the update every 3 weeks to a month now, especially with christmas coming up so i’ll have some more time to write. 
> 
> also does anyone know how to italicize words on here? please comment if you do i can’t figure it out dnfjdkkdfjjs
> 
> i hope you guys are enjoying this, sorry if it’s not as in character as it should be, i’m still getting used to writing in lances pov.
> 
> see you in 3 weeks (hopefully!!)

**Author's Note:**

> hey so if you’re from the original you’d notice that i actually changed a lot of it.
> 
> i’m hoping i’ll continue with this as i actually really like the ideas i have planned.
> 
> if you didn’t notice this is based off of enders game with only a few elements from it (the school and battle program) other than that it’s my own ideas
> 
> i’ll try to update every 3 weeks to every month, i’m really busy with school so it might change 
> 
> also as for my writing i’m pretty rusty so give it some time while i develop the characters. and for lance his anxiety is based off of mine so if it doesn’t match yours that’s totally fine!! also i realize i made it pretty heavy this chapter so i’ll try to tone it down a lot in the next ones.
> 
> anyway i hope you guys enjoy this!!


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